Trauma-Informed Decision Making
How healthy decision making can heal
April Charlo and Erika Koskela, co-founders of Snqweylmistn, a First Nation organization in the USA and Samantha Slade, author of Going Horizontal, co-founder of Percolab have been collaborating together to build a shared leadership model that honors traditions ways of leading and have co-authored this article around the question: How can healthy decision making heal?
April’s perspective
My growth and learning on leadership was catalyzed by the Idle No More movement in 2012. I had to ask myself what colonized meant. It hit me hard., I came to the stark realization that I was a bonafide high heel wearing, fashionista, assimilated, colonized Native. Boy, did I ever feel silly, because I am so proud to be Indigenous, with Chief’s blood in my veins. I grew up in my culture and traditions, and was learning my language. I was not aware of the pervasive ways that colonized thinking was subconsciously affecting my life.
Once aware, I actively began to deconstruct my way of thinking around group work. I made a few attempts at implementing consensus-type leadership in a project as director of our Salish Immersion School. Without enough experience, there were a lot of growing pains and many hard lessons that, at times, hurt my heart.
At Snwqweylmistn, the co-founders are all Indigenous and have experienced some form of trauma, along with the everlasting intergenerational trauma that lives in our DNA. Knowing what happens when someone takes a leadership role and becomes authoritative, or bossy, everyone will turn on them, because it triggers trauma. So, we all agreed to this concept of “we are all equal” when it comes to leadership and decision making. Our consensus decision making skills took us only so far before conflict arose.
When Samantha led us in Generative Decision Making, a clear succinct decision making tool, I had an emotional response. Having this generative decision making tool that is gentle yet firm in its guidelines makes me feel safe. We have been using it and I can feel the healing as well as witness it in others. I can’t wait to introduce it in our programming with the kids and youth we serve!
Samantha’s Perspective
Consent based decision making puts the focus on our ability to make a decision we can live with (versus trying to get everyone to agree). The process we call Generative Decision Making is a 7 step protocol that helps to focus on the collective goal rather than individual preferences, bringing powerful impact to groups and teams. Generative Decision Making helps grow a healthy listening culture while keeping things moving. In my work with Snqweylmistn we are discovering how this collective decision making method intersects with trauma informed collaboration.
“This is a trauma informed approach to decision making.”- Gena Montoya, Clinical Social Worker after experiencing the Generative Decision Making process.
The first experience of Generative Decision Making was with the board for a decision about remodelling a foster care home. I witnessed the usual discomfort. Some individuals spoke up on behalf of others, not yet trusting if the process would take care of everyone. I could feel people holding back from their habitual reactions and sense unease around reflexes to counter propose. And then suddenly, we were through with a shared decision in which everyone had participated. After the experience Gena Montoya, board member and Clinical Social Worker for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation (USA), declared “This is a trauma informed approach to decision making.” Gena explained how people who have experienced trauma have a need for more control, and this is a process that can provide that sense of control for themselves. At the same time it protects them from trying to exercise control on the group.
My colleague Stéphanie Bossé says it’s about having a space where we can make a decision without the filter of our trauma or reacting to one another’s trauma. This is a structured process to make efficient decisions inclusive for everyone, because we know trauma is ubiquitous in our work environment. The Generative Decision Making process prevents the desire or need for domination in order to feel comfortable, safe and visible.
Erika’s perspective
In creating an organization with the vision to perpetuate and lean into traditional teachings and relationships, the co-founders of Snqweylmistn recognized early on the necessity of employing consensus decision making. So we went about our work making sure to move forward only when every one of the board members could fully agree on any decision. For the most part, this came as second-nature to our group. However, when we faced a decision that did not easily gain full support, we struggled to know how to move the process forward. Now that we understand and implement this Generative Decision Making process, conflicts can be addressed in a restorative manner and there hasn’t been any decision we haven’t been able to make in a timely fashion. As a matter of fact, our business meetings have been concluding one or two hours earlier than they did before we began to use the generative decision making process.
Safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment, these five elements have been depicted as the five main principles of trauma informed care (by The Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care). I love that these same principles can be held up to the Generative Decision Making process and align so beautifully with the practice.
_______
For More Information
- Listen further as April, Erika and Samantha discuss Generative Decision Making and its impact in their work. https://vimeo.com/806151852
- Discover the Generative Decision Making (GDM) process, and download a free GDM brochure. Generative Decision Making is part of a wider set of practices published in Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (Berrett Koehler Publishers).
- To learn more about the emerging field of trauma informed collaboration read The Body Keeps the Score, listen to the Leadermorphosis podcast with Ria Baeck and J.D. Nasaw and visit The Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care, Buffalo Centre for Social Research, University at Buffalo.
This article is also published at our organizations: Percolab Coop and Snqweylmistn. Thanks to Laura Ndoria for support and my colleague Stéphanie Bossé for all her work around trauma-informed collaboration.
